


All That The Words Cannot Say

by Forestsandtrees



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Keith is tired and he just wants to sleeeeeeeeeeeep, Lance helps him because my boy is best boy, Late night talks, M/M, One Shot, Pet names for keith, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 02, bad names for planets due to the author being uncreative af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-23 14:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14334789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forestsandtrees/pseuds/Forestsandtrees
Summary: A BIG THANK YOU to every single one of you who took time to read my last fanfic! To be honest i wasn't expecting anyone to like it so if you did thank you so much you keep me going:)I tried to put in more effort with structure and grammar with this one so i hope you enjoy it!and of course as usual I will try my utmost to make sure that the next one I publish will be better than this one as well!BYE BYE! hope u have a lovely day !ALSO DO leave a comment and let me know what you think whether you liked it or you thought there was something lacking or anything really. I always appreciate feedback.





	All That The Words Cannot Say

It had taken voltron nearly three weeks to liberate daphneous but they had finally done it. The war against galra was a formidable and a long one and this battle was no less physically exhausting .Liberating planets was much more than just driving conquerors away, it was tearing down entire political, economic and social systems down so “relief” was only one of the many complex emotions the civilians expressed. Keith always argued with Allura after the big fight had been won “We should go back” he said in a terse voice while Allura looked at him with sympathy that Keith had long since knew how to avoid being the recipient of “We can’t just leave these people Keith, as voltron our responsibilities entail us to at least provide them with medical aid and other basic humane aids “

“But why can’t they just do it themselves?”Keith asked, clearly annoyed. Allura sighed  deeply and replied ”I can’t…expect you to understand Keith because your planet has never been invaded and destroyed .There are entire generations here who have known nothing but galra rule and they have no idea what to do next. I am not proposing that we impose upon them some sort of temporary government but we do need to help them understand that there are other, better ways of living”

“And princess exactly how do you propose we do that?”

“Well, for once I think it would entirely be in our as well as their favor if we told them exactly what kind of a enemy the galra are and then offer them to join our coalition and for that well I suppose you will have to make a speech” Allura finished with a timid voice. She felt that she was asking too much of Keith had Shiro been here, she thought, he would have done all of this by himself already not that the red paladin wasn’t competent enough or anything it’s just both of them had widely different styles of being leaders and she as well as the entire team could see how uncomfortable and awkward Keith felt in his new position .None of them ever doubted his abilities but it was true that too much responsibility had been imposed on the boy in circumstances far from agreeable.

“  ‘Ello Mullet” Lance suddenly came jogging behind Allura, he tipped his helmet “and princess “

Allura smiled at the blue paladin “Lance. We were just talking about the speech that Keith is going to make tomorrow” Lance’s eyes widened, he looked at Keith with a teasing look”Oh, she finally told you huh, we all had a bet that whoever would draw the shortest straw will have to tell you. I came to meet you guys ‘cause I thought Allura would chicken out”

Allura crinkled her nose”I do not chicken out! I fly the blue lion for Altea ‘s sake!”Lance rolled his eyes “Yeah yeah whatever princess you totally didn’t chicken out on that scary movie night we had a month ago” “Hey! It was a month ago and –“she stopped and continued a little less animatedly “And-“

“And Shiro crept behind you and yelled in your ear” Keith finished staring at the setting sun looking very much like a statue. A sharp contrast to his easy and graceful look whilst in battle.  Allura and Lance shared a look. It had been about that much time since Shiro had gone missing and while it affected all of them it was obvious who it affected the most. Lance cleared his throat and walked towards Keith and placed a hand on his shoulder, Keith didn’t flinch. He was used to his comforting touches by now. Since Shiro had gone missing the duty to comfort Keith had somehow fallen on Lance. The entire team tried as much as they could obviously, but whenever Keith went in a darker state of mind he only allowed Lance to approach him. For as loud as the blue paladin could be he also proved a valuable asset during times of quite solitude. Lance leaned in and whispered something in Keith’s ear that made him smile a little which consequently allowed Allura to release the tension she didn’t realize she had been holding in her body. Lance grinned even more and proceeded to whisper more things to Keith who ended up smiling a proper smile and finally looking at Allura

“Fine, I’ll do it but don’t expect it to be spectacular or anything okay?” Allura smiled “Oh Keith thank you so much it would mean so much to the daphnae here I’m sure”

Keith nodded, though still unsure in his own abilities but determined to at least try. For his team’ s sake as well as … as well as Shiro’s.

 

“Fuck . fuck ,FUCK!” Keith muttered as he threw what was probably the tenth attempt at a decent speech on his bed. His room was scarcely decorated. There was the bed with a light dark blue quilt that Keith couldn’t sleep without, a desk,a cupboard that held his paladin pajamas and his daily clothes the bathroom and well, that was it. He wasn’t a hoarder like Pidge was nor did he have numerous possessions like Coran and Allura did. Lance and Hunk had decorated their room with some posters and cool alien stuff they had come across in the space mall but Keith didn’t have anything. In the space mall he had been too busy tracking down the origin of his knife to pay any attention to actually buying something for his room. He put his head on the desk he was sitting on and sighed wishing for the nth time that Shiro were here.

He would probably give some excellent advice in fact Keith wouldn’t be in this position had Shiro been here. Oh god he should be searching for Shiro right? Why was he stuck like a useless brat in his room trying to come up with a speech like an idiot? If their situations had been reversed, _only_ if their situations had been reversed, Shiro would probably haven’t stopped looking till he found him .Keith felt a hot lump rise from his gut to his throat. His heart beat quickened. Why was he so useless? Keith hated being useless.

Who was he kidding. He can’t lead, he can’t even come up with a speech and now Allura would hate him and Shiro would detest him when they find him, _if they find him,_ and Pidge and hunk and-

A soft knock on his door.

_Lance_

“Come on in” he said, his head still on the table.

The doors opened revealing Lance holding a plate and a worried expression on his face “Dude, I get it that you are working hard” He looked around the room “But you can’t keep on missing dinner. The others get worried you know” He said softly putting the plate on the desk and jumping to sit on the bed

Keith smirked ”And you don’t?”

Lance gave him a mocking smile while he collected the various discarded pieces of paper that were lying on the bed “Nah mullet I don’t care about you one bit”

Keith picked up the plate and gestured to it “Then why did you bring me dinner?”

“‘cause Allura told me to” Lance said casually chucking the waste paper in the basket beside the bed.

Keith felt his body slump. He picked up the fork and stabbed the goo feeling once again the insane need to be anywhere but here. Preferably wherever Shiro was.

Lance sighed and stretched his arms exposing the skin behind his cotton t shirt. Keith tried on to stare too much but he failed, like he always does. Lance caught his eye and grinned “Like what you see?”

Keith’s face reddened and he continued to stab the goo trying to build the appetite to eat it. Lance turned his neck and looked at him while Keith stared at the goo. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes till lance yawned and lay on Keith’s bed with his face hanging upside down from the end. Keith stared at him and Lance grinned.

It was weird seeing Lance in his room. Before Shiro’s disappearance he hardly let anyone set foot in his room not like anyone had any reason to but after since Lance had almost always invariably ended in his room by the end of the day either to “check up on him” or just to “hang around”. The first few times had been a bit awkward because Keith wasn’t really used to Lance being so kind and nice to him. He still teased him and annoyed him relentlessly like it was his life s mission to do so but there was no real bite to it.

Keith usually felt pressured whenever somebody was in the same room as him. He felt like he had to please them in some away, show himself off, prove his abilities. Prove his own worth to show them that he was worth their time. Maybe it was a habit he had picked up living in orphanages half his life or maybe that’s just the way he was. He didn’t know and he didn’t want to figure it out. The point was that it was different with Lance around.

Lance was like a one man show all by himself. He could entertain for hours on his own. Always amused by everything, intrigued by everything yet still very respectful of personal boundaries like that one time he had found Keith crying and after trying to comfort him had actually asked “Do you mind if I hug you?” Keith had replied between sobs “I-I don’t n-need a hug” “Of course _you_ don’t Keith but _I do”_ Keith had nodded weakly too exhausted to understand what Lance had actually intended. Lance always seemed to know exactly what the other person wanted, he was always so attentive to other people’s feelings and so in touch with their emotions that Keith often found himself so envious of him.

Lance hummed “You should go to sleep, its getting kind of late”

Keith scoffed “We’re in space Lance, there is no “late” or “early” “

Lance frowned “Sure there is and if you put in half an effort to take care of yourself you would know”

“What‘s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing” Lance said defensively.

Both of them sat quietly for a minute before Keith cleared his throat

“And I can’t go to sleep even if I wanted to…I am not done with the speech at all”

Lance got up “Do you want any help with that?”

Keith slid the plate across the desk “No, you should go sleep you already look sleepy anyway”

“I am not sleepy at all dude I took a nap when you were training today”

Keith rolled his eyes” Yeah about that Lance you should train more often with me “

Lance smiled  ”Oooooo is somebody missing me”

“No you idiot. I meant that you need some more practice with you sword and I can help you with that”

“Oh _I am sure you can help with my sword Keith”_ Lance said teasing wiggling his eyebrows.

Keith groaned “Oh my god cant you for once talk like an actual adult”

Lance gave him a flying kiss “Anything for you babycakes”

Keith threatened to hit him with the plate while lance laughed manically and hid behind the pillow

“Hey hey! Drop the plate Kogane! I was joking. Yeah yeah I’ll put in more effort but only if you will let me help you with the speech”

“Why do you want to help me anyway what’s in it for you” Keith asked though he knew exactly why Lance wanted to help but sincerity in conversation like many other things Keith realized wasn’t exactly his strong suit these days.

Lance shrugged “I promised Llura that I would help you and I would hate to break my promise to her”  
Keith pursed his lips, _not quite_ the response that he was looking for but he was grateful to have any kind of help in this ordeal.

“So,” Lance said sitting cross legged on his bed looking soft and domestic as ever Keith thought. With his blue paladin pajamas and His tousled hair and glasses. He should wear glasses more Keith decided. He suits them so well and his skin looked so soft and-“Keiiiiiiithhhhhhhh” Lance wailed waving his hand in front of his face “I asked you how much have you come up with till now”

Keith cleared his throat and picked up the notebook he had been writing on and handed it to Lance who scrutinized it for a minute and pressed his lips together

“Its shit isn’t it?”Keith asked drily.

Lance opened his mouth to say something then closed it then opened it again and after a pause said “I mean it’s certainly….amusing…”

Keith banged his head against the table and groaned “I am telling you Lance you’re wasting your time with me. I am hopeless”

Lance climbed over the bed and petted Keith’s hair.

“Yeah, you maybe be hopeless Mullet but I sure as heck am not so let’s pull out the paper s and pencils and get ready to razzle the actual fuck out of these people tomorrow”

 

 

It took them nearly five hours of brainstorming, arguing and persuasion to come up with a speech half decent. Initially Lance had been the one coming up with ideas and lines while Keith either made a face at him or raised an eyebrow whenever he thought Lance said something impressive but soon he started to contribute ideas and suggestions here and there too. They wrote something then scratched it off then wrote it again and chucked it to the bin. They wrote and wrote and wrote, voices hoarse,hands paining, heads aching till they couldn’t think coherently anymore.

 

But writing the speech was only half the problem the other part of the puzzle was concerned around the fact that it was entirely impossible for Keith to deliver the speech in a convincing way. Either he sounded too detached and formal or he sounded like he was mocking sincerity. After the third attempt Keith gave up raised his hands and fell head first into his bed “I wanna sleeeeeeeep” he whined rubbing his face on the sheets and pulling his legs to his chest. “I’m too tired Lance we’ll just figure it out in the morning …I just wanna” yawn ”sleep right now”

Lance watched Keith from where he was lying on the floor and slowly smiled ”Yeah mullet no shit. Even I wanna sleep but –“  “ NO!”  Keith protested as Lance tried to pull him out of bed. “but you need to do it once properly at least once” Keith shook his head as he struggle to get out of Lance’s grip he finally succeeded and lunged across his bed to switch off the light.

It was dark in his room as he snuggled up in his bed. He felt guilty but strangely he felt pretty confident about tomorrow as well. He just had an inkling that everything would go alright. The speech that they had come up with was pretty darn good and he just…he just _knew_ that everything was going to be alright.

He heard Lance groan and shuffle around him when suddenly he felt the mattress dip beside him

 lazily opening an eye to find Lance’s face but a few inches away from his own.

“I’m not leaving Keith till you practice properly at least once”

Keith smirked “Then stay the night, who’s telling you to leave?”

Keith fancied that he saw Lance blush but his sleep ridden brain could be playing tricks on him.

“Maybe I will” he replied in a broken whisper and Keith got up and stared at the boy beside him.

_He looks so worried._

Keith leaned in “Lance” he whispered nudging him with his elbow

“What?”He replied already falling asleep.

“Lanceeeeeee” Keith insisted shaking him by his shoulders

“WHAT IS IT KEITH LET ME SLEEP I SWEAR-“

“It’s going to be okay” Keith said softly falling back on the bed

“What…what?”Lance asked now wide awake while Keith felt exhaustion take over

“Its…” he mumbled ”tomorrow is going to be… it’s going to alright” he finished before closing his eyes and hearing the door open  while the soft green neon light fell  on his face and he doesn’t know if he dreaming or not when he hears Lance say

“Yeah princess I know. Sweet dreams”

  

Keith was _so_ _not ready_ in the morning. Hunk came up early to wake him up and Keith got up contended feeling light in his body. Rested though he had barely slept for four hours. It had been some time since he had had such a satisfactory sleep and something told him that a certain blue paladin was to be thanked for that.

Unfortunately these feelings of lightness and happiness only lasted briefly as soon as his feet hit the cold floor he was suddenly reminded of the herculean task that was before him. Anxiety started to creep up his body like nasty vines reaching his neck suffocating him.

He got up heart pounding and brushed his teeth. He started at his reflection in the mirror. _He looked like shit_. Dark bags under his eyes, dry skin and not to mention the look of crazy that he wore.

He looked exhausted and tired and a little bit unhinged. Definitely not like somebody who was going to be addressing an entire planet representing the most powerful force known to universe.

If only it had been Shiro instead of him he thought weakly.

_Stop thinking about Shiro_

A voice chided him from inside

 _“But I can’t”_ he replied, already exhausted.

The thought of Shiro was always present inside Keith. He would get up and think about Shiro, he would think about Shiro when he fought the stimulators, he would think about Shiro when they would have liberated a planet and everybody would be enjoying themselves Keith would be standing in the corner just thinking,thinking,thinking.

_Just thinking never doing_

After searching for him for nearly a month Allura thought that it would be best if they returned back to their paladin duties and while Keith had resisted with every bone and voice in his body he knew that she was right deep within. Of course she was right _that’s what Shiro would have wanted anyway_.

Yeah it’s what Shiro would have wanted because that’s just the kind of person he was

He is

Always thinking about others never about himself.

Keith thought bitterly as he opened the cupboard and took out the uniform that he was supposed to wear.

All dark and official warranting respect and obedience

None of which he deserved

“I can’t lead them like you do” He said to the uniform

The uniform didn’t reply back just lay there on his bed threathing to choke the life out of him

“But” Keith continued, a new sense of hope rising in his chest as he remembered Lance and all of his other teammates smiling faces after they had liberated daphneous “But I can try” He took a deep breath and looked at Lance’s glasses sitting on his desk.

He smiled a bit at the thought of them working together last night, in unity. Working to achieve something meaningful became a hell lot easier when the person you were working with could help you see that meaning.

 _“Whatever happens we are with you Keith_ ” Allura smiling at him trusting him to make the correct decision

“ _You’ve got it Captain!”_  Lance not hesitating for a second before blasting the ships on his order

Pidge, Hunk even _Shiro_

All of them believed in him even when he couldn’t. They treated him like family, better than family, trusting him, caring for him, admiring him.

Keith felt his chest expand as he started to remember all the things his teammates had done over the past month to help him cheer up

Lance bringing him food, Pidge inviting him to play video games, Hunk dragging him to kitchen to test the new food he had made, Allura offering to train with him whenever he was alone moping in a corner.

They care for him so much it made his soul ache.

He looks at his uniform, which has gone from taunting and mocking him to looking like a promise

A promise to protect and serve his fellow teammates as well as the members of the universe

And in that moment Keith saw with perfect clarity exactly what he had to do.

A knock.

“Come in!” He says picking up a comb

Lance enters with a cheeky grin. He too is dressed up in his formal paladin suit. A smart well fitting black suit with a single stripe of dull red running at the side of his pants. His hair is curly as ever and his brown eyes shine with anticipation and excitement

Red is a good color on him, Keith decides.

“Dude why are you not dressed yet? Coran and Allura are already so pissed that Pidge isn’t waking up. If you don’t hurry up they are gonna scold all of us”

“I was going to but it looks like you can’t leave me alone for a second”

Lance scoffs as he looks around the room” Yeah yeah, you wish…”

“In the drawer” Keith replies, frowning at his reflection. His hair isn’t settling at all.

“Hmm?” Lance asks innocently

Keith smiles “Your glasses, they are in my bedside drawer”

He watches Lance bend and take the glasses and then just stare at them.

Keith turns around and marches to where Lance is standing.

Lance looks up smiling.

_Always smiling_

“Your hair is a mess” Lance says with fake disgust as Keith playfully hits his arm.

Keith looks at him and thinks that there are so many things that he wants to tell him right now. He wants to thank him for helping him yesterday; he wants to thank him for taking care of him these past few months when Keith wasn’t able to. He wants to tell him how much he appreciates being here, being his friend, his teammate. That he gives him assurance and strength both on the battle field as well in his heart that everything is going to be _okay_.

He wants to tell him how cute he looks in his glasses and that he hopes that even after they find Shiro he still will keep visiting his room at night for their talks because these days it seems like very few things are helping him keep sane and Lance consists of most of them.

“I know”  is all that Keith says as Lance rolls his eyes and  starts to make his way out of the room.

_Now or never Keith_

“Hey Lance?”

“Yeah?” Lance turns on the doorway.

“Thank you for everything. Last night and…and all those nights before. Thank you.”

Lance winks “Anything for you Commander. Now are you ready to razzle dazzle them.”

Keith smiles feeling more confident than he has in a long time.

“Hell yeah!” He says feeling abuzz with excitement and something he thought he had lost a long time ago.

Something he stopped believing in because it kept failing him again and again and again

Something that Lance and his teammates had kept repeating to him while he listened to their empty words filling him with waves of dread and fear

But he looks at lance and he sees it reflect from his eyes and Keith decides that anything worth being in his eyes is worth believing in.

Keith feels _hopeful._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> A BIG THANK YOU to every single one of you who took time to read my last fanfic! To be honest i wasn't expecting anyone to like it so if you did thank you so much you keep me going:)  
> I tried to put in more effort with structure and grammar with this one so i hope you enjoy it!  
> and of course as usual I will try my utmost to make sure that the next one I publish will be better than this one as well!  
> BYE BYE! hope u have a lovely day !ALSO DO leave a comment and let me know what you think whether you liked it or you thought there was something lacking or anything really. I always appreciate feedback.


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